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Friday, November 13, 2015

Sunny Side Up

I'd love to be writing a blog post about eggs (or any other subject) but, alas, it is yet another post on our fiberglass bimini project. While the temperatures haven't been perfect, we have had a couple good (read dry) weather days and have been making some progress. If the weather guessers are correct, it looks like we might have a few more nice days so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can make a lot of progress in that time frame.

In my last post I mentioned I was waiting for some rain to clear. Naturally, it stuck around longer than predicted and we didn't get nearly as much done as I hoped that day, only managing to get gelcoat on the mounting flange at the rear edge of the top. But the following day was dry and we spent the day applying gelcoat to the rest of the bottom side of the top.

The bottom is all white now.

Remember the experimenting I did early in the project to figure out how to get the textures I wanted in the gelcoat? Apparently most of that experiment wasn't very fruitful as we have come to find that gelcoat can behave very differently with the subtle changes in temperature. We ended up experimenting a bit as we went but came up with an option that was "good enough" (see...I'm learning). It is far from perfect, but it is the underside of the top, and as long as it is protected and doesn't create a lot of glare, we are moving on.

Front edge detail. The green is a combination of the green tarp
and the PVA used to seal the gelcoat surface.

So, the underside of the top is now done, with the exception of a small amount of patching I will have to do for the window opening.

The next step was to get the top flipped back over so we can make the cutout for the window and finish the top side of the top. Fortunately the boating community is filled with good people who always help one another out. I was able to round up 7 other people at the marina, and we made fairly quick work of getting the top off of the table, out from under the tent, flipped over, and placed directly on jackstands back under the tent. It seems like it has been quite a while since I've seen this side of the top.

To thank my fellow boaters for their help, we got some pizza, soda, and beer and had a nice little lunch in the boatyard.

Thanks for the help guys!

Next we need to create a router template for the window and cut the hole in the top.

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...That's the plan anyway

With no sailing experience and coming from a land-locked state, we intend to give up successful careers and embark on a more minimalistic and lower impact lifestyle living on a sailboat. Come along as we attempt to sail away from the rat race.

About Me

I'm an ex-software engineer living with my wife and two spoiled dogs. I hold a private pilots license and in the past owned a small, single engine aircraft. My wife and I are both PADI certified open water scuba divers.
When we started this sailing adventure, other than being passengers, we had no experience on a sailboat. We've taken sailing lessons through the ASA programs in both Colorado and Florida. In December 2013 we purchased our floating home, a 1999 Leopard 38, and in April of 2015 we sold our house and moved aboard.